Why Collected Editions?

I'm just curious as to why everyone decided to go to collected editions?
Are you a collector of them? Cheaper than buying floppies? Just enjoy certain storylines?

Personally, I had been out of "collecting" comics for a long (15+ yrs) time, and really just wanted to catch up on some of the storyliines that I had heard about and were loosely being used in some of the movies/tv shows.
In the process, I have also come to enjoy picking up some cheaper/lesser known TPBs to see if I like a character or creative team.
I've only been picking up collected editions for almost 2 yrs now, and I'm actually thinking about selling off my floppies, minus a few classics/signed ones.

I have never bought floppies because I am not in a rush to read the latest stories plus it is easier to get everything in collected editions. On top of that, collected editions are easier to store than floppies.

I only buy floppies to collect variants or if I know the series won't be getting a collected edition (one-shots). Otherwise, I'd rather have the full story in a collected edition.

I was an early adopter of trades in the 1970s, getting the Son of Origins volume for Christmas in the late 70s, and picking up the Tempo paperbacks DC collections at Scholastic Book Fairs when they had them. I just liked the idea of having a bunch of comic stories together in a book and they held up better to multiple reads than did my individual issues which I read until they were dog-eared. In the 1980s, when Warner books released a collection of Dark Knight Returns I snapped it up even though I had already gotten the individual issues because I liked the book format better, and ordered a HC copy of the Watchmen through the SFBC (Science Fiction Book Club) which was available long before DC released a collection of the series to retailers. I was in on the ground floor of Marvel Masterworks and DC Archives when those hit the market and had been getting to oversized album editions of Elfquest when I could find them.

When given the option, I just preferred to get stuff in book format. For a while it was only select stuff that got collected, but not it is pretty standard. The only stuff I buy individual issues for now is stuff I want to support-creator-owned books, small press stuff, unique projects, rather than anything big 2 or super-hero. And in this age of digital subscription services like Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe, I am even getting picky about what I buy in collected editions, choosing things that I want to support rather than things I just want to have access to for reading one time. Limited shelf space was the biggest factor, but budget was a factor too.

-M

Trades are easier to store, cheaper and typically collects a finished arc. I don't know what kind of paper quality single issues has these days, but it used to be terrible - which also factors in.